"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" ~ Mary Oliver

being (more) known . . .

by mulberryshoots

Well, I did it. It took me ALL DAY to put together the 200 posts of the blog so far into a hard copy volume the way that I wanted it to be. There wasn’t really that much to do after the transfer of the posts to the website (Blog2Print) went through. That worked after the third try. But the rest of it took hours: adding 8 pages of family photos to MyPages, deciding about the front and back cover photographs, what the dedication page would look like. Now I can see what book publishing people do for a living.

Because it was the last day for a 20% discount (which for me was the make-or-break to do it in the first place,) the website was sluggish, no, that’s not the right description: it was a breakdown lane. The photo upload feature was hard to find, never mind use– and the appearance of that little multi-colored spinning ball made my heart drop every time it stopped things cold, you had to exit the site and it wouldn’t save. Then you couldn’t get back into your current draft because it wouldn’t accept your user ID and password and when you were in again, it wouldn’t open up your current draft, get the picture?

While it was frustrating electronically to put the book together, what wasn’t a drag was finally being able to see the whole package, all 246 pages of colorful posts. As you know, I have wanted to be a writer for a long time. The novel I wrote a few years ago felt like a creative endeavor at the time, but novels are not what I’m good at. A year or so ago, I began to suspect that “utopia was in my own backyard”: the essay/memoir format and intuitively deciding when and what to post felt just right.

And so I have spilled my guts here, pondering how to live more intentionally, dressed up with flowers, food and family memories–

Thank you to all the random strangers who touch the blog and then fly off again with compliments written in syntax showing that English is definitely not your first language. Many thanks to those who have become my friends who live in places here in the U.S. like New York, Mississippi, Texas, the United Kingdom, Seoul, Korea, Singapore and Australia.

The internet is truly an incredible thing. Its medium has opened up a dialogue with virtual strangers who share what’s most important to us as humans, as women, as mothers, wives and sisters.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It shows me that there are many of us with like minds, although diverse in some ways! I’ve done some photo books and they do take time, but the effort is worth it. Keep writing!

Thanks, Beth. . . do you and Suzassippi know each other? Seems as though you each comment close to one another on the blog. Yes the photo books take awhile to put together but any of these personal books are fun to make and to look at afterwards.

ralph waldo emerson:

“Every spirit builds itself a house; and beyond its house, a world; and beyond its world a heaven. Know then, that the world exists for you: build, therefore, your own world.”

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

morning glories

Every year we plant "heavenly blue" morning glory seedlings in front of the barn. By the Fall, their brilliant blooms create an evanescent blanket of blue, viewed from our kitchen window on foggy mornings in late October and November.
Each flower blooms in the morning and fades at night, a reminder to live each day as it opens and closes.